A Little Lost Boy

“As a kid, all I thought about was death,” the late Maurice Sendak told Vanity Fair two years ago. “But you can’t tell your parents that.” Judging from his final work, My Brother’s Book, Sendak’s obsession continued well into his final days. The author’s beautifully illustrated narrative tells the story of his brother’s journey to the end of life, a deeply personal tale inspired by his brother Jack’s death, in 1995. Written in verse that echoes Shakespeare and William Blake, Sendak’s longing to be reunited with his deceased sibling serves as a suiting good-bye from the beloved Where the Wild Things Are author. As longtime friend Tony Kushner notes in the book’s jacket, “We’ll miss him forever.”